Why Ask about Alcohol.ie?

Whatever you drink, find out what it's doing to you healthwise on AskAboutAlcohol.ie

This website is created and published by the Health Service Executive, Ireland's public health service. We also promote the website through an information campaign, using digital, social media and radio advertising, letting people know about the website and the information it provides. The purpose of this website and the promotional campaign is to improve people's knowledge about alcohol – how much we’re drinking, how it affects our health and mental wellbeing, and how we can gain more by drinking less.

A lot of the content is aimed at the 54% of drinkers who are drinking too much, too often, with little or no knowledge of the impact on their health and wellbeing. Comprehensive surveys show that harmful drinking patterns have become the norm for many people in Ireland, while awareness of the significant risk associated with these drinking patterns remains low.

We want people to know about the direct connection between alcohol and cancer, alcohol and weight, alcohol and physical performance, alcohol and family life, and alcohol and mental health. We want them to know more, so that they can make informed choices about their own physical and mental health.

The website also provides information for people who are worried about their own drinking, or worried about someone close to them, and has a county by county service finder to help connect people to support and services.

AskAboutAlcohol.ie has been created by the HSE so that we can ensure there is a source of trusted, evidence-based public information and health advice about alcohol in Ireland. It is also designed to work in tandem with public health legislation and planned regulatory changes on alcohol labelling, availability and pricing.

We carried out a lot of research in developing this website, and the communications campaign that promotes it, and when we talked to Irish people, it was very clear that they wanted the facts on alcohol and how it affects their health, mental health and overall wellbeing. They confirmed that using words like drinking responsibly or sensibly do not provide practical advice on which people can make decisions.

They finally affirmed that they expected and wanted to get health information on alcohol from the HSE above all other sources. In a time when being certain of the true source of facts is more important than ever, we hope this website meets our aims and your expectations.

If you have any questions about this website, the sources of the information we have published, or would like to send us some feedback, please use the feedback button below.